Imagining Mary, the Mother of Jesus

Imagining Mary, the Mother of Jesus

Listen: Missionary, author and dramatist Naomi Reed takes us on an extraordinary and evocative journey looking at Mary, mother of Jesus.

As Australians celebrate Mothers Day, Naomi Reed casts a new light on the story of Jesus: through the eyes of his mother, Mary.

In a chat with Stephen O’Doherty on Open House, Naomi shared some of the territory she explores in the monologue she performs at churches around Christmas and Easter time each year.

She explained why she began doing monologue performances.

“We were in Nepal working with a mission agency for a long time, and Nepal churches are new and young and read the Bible with ‘Oh wow we’ve never heard this before’,” she said. “But when we came back to Australia leading into Christmas, the thing I noticed about Australian churches, was how we have heard the Christmas narrative so many times, [it becomes too familiar].”

“So I started thinking about trying to tell Bible stories through monologues and first person work, to try to get us to think differently and from a different perspective, to make it fresh. To hear it, to feel it.”

“I started with Mary and imagined her as a 70-year-old. It would have been 20 years after the cross, if she was alive.”

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In this conversation with Open House, Stephen and Naomi explore what it would have been like for Mary to learn that she would give birth to God’s son, to speak with an angel, to feel the pressure of the community knowing she was pregnant, and to see her son, years later, die on the cross.